June 30, 2015

Globally, Uber positions and packages itself as the creator of good middle-class jobs of the little guy - and woman. Much of its public relations touts how many more drivers will be hired in the near or longer-term future.

So, no surprise, that is one of the advocacy points Uber is making as it pushes back against the City Council Transportation Committee (CCTC), right outside New York City Hall. Here is the coverage by Fitz Tepper in TechCrunch.

The CCTC is introducing a bill which would cut Uber and other sharing-economy transportation players off at the knee, at least for a year. Here it is.

Essentially it would limit the Taxi and Limousine Commission to so many new for-hire vehicle licenses. Uber's share would be about 200 during the next year. Of course, Uber contends it intended to provide jobs for many more.

This would be a major win for the New York traditional taxi industry.

In addition to public relations, Uber is aggressive with legal tactics. Its in-house legal team employs about 70.

"We walked from Maine to Washington D.C., advocating for peace. It was a little jarring to realize we had no home of our own, no food of our own. But we were filled with joy because of our mission."

That's what a Buddhist nun told me last Sunday. We were at a discussion group at a spiritual center about confusion. One thing she wasn't confused about: It was okay to be homeless. Currently she maintains a roof over her head by assisting a handicapped woman. That means she gets enough food. But when she doesn't she will go out there with her classic Buddhist begging bowl. She has always found a place to sleep safely.

That got me thinking how homeless is a state of mind, at least the elite kind. There are those who renounce material possessions and comforts. Essentially, Jesus Christ had been homeless.

Before I relocated to the Southwest from the pressure-cooker Northeast Corridor I gave all my possessions, except the laptop and printer, to charity. Those included the books I had trudged along with me since college. I had had with all the combinations and permutations of conspicuous consumption. Books can be part of all that. Recently a neighbor here in Tucson, Arizona, offered me a relatively new sofa. No, I said. What would I do with it?

Most of the homeless I have talked with across the nation wouldn't have it any other way. Do-gooders had set some of them up in apartments. Community living was too confining for them. You bet, they bolted.

At the New Haven, Connecticut library, near Yale, a homeless man was snoring loudly. The police were called. They offered to take him to a shelter. He smirked. The Yale students there smirked. A home isn't for everyone.

The Amazon game is to go for market share, not profit. Uber could be following that model.

According to the bond prospectus viewed by Bloomberg, reports Biz Carson in BusinessInsider, Uber had a $470 million operating loss. The period for that loss was, however, unknown. Was it for a quarter or whole year and how recent was it?

If Uber has an IPO and becomes a public company, shareholders might not tolerate losses, even for market share.

And New Jersey governor Chris Christie can make up his mind to channel Harry Truman. Truman's signature was a combo platter of plain-speaking and accountability or his embrace of the buck-stops-here ethos.

What Christie already has going for him is the lack of the usual politico verbal filtering mechanism. If he tones down his rhetoric, softens his delivery and authentically welcomes a conversation, he could win. The nation is weary of the over-coached smoothies who get on Fox News and hang out in the platitude box.

What Christie is facing in terms of obstacles, reports Robert Costa in The Washington Post, range from the Bridgegate scandal to plummeting popularity in NJ. But, hey, other politicos such as Bill Clinton overcame that and much more.

The beauty of rebranding is that the past becomes irrelevant. All that counts is what the entity is in the process of becoming. Given that need to focus on the now, Christie would be shrewd to issue a press release that he and his team are practicing mindfulness. That could further siphon off the rawness of his NJ persona.

June 29, 2015

There are those business owners, job applicants and professional services players who are following all the best practices in social media.

For instance, they have taken a training course on how to maximize networking and actual selling potential on LinkedIn. They are up to date on the Google rules for mobile. And they pay plenty of attention to keywords in everything.

Then they notice the results aren't coming. On their ecommerce site few subscriptions have been taken. No recruiter has found them on social networks. And no one has contacted them for their legal or management consulting services.

The missing piece is that they have no background in the fundamentals of marketing and closing a sale. The assumption is that doing social media right is enough. Actually, social media is only one more platform for marketing and actually selling.

That even means that it should be used along with other kinds of marketing strategies and tactics. That's called integrated or multi-channel marketing. The executives conducting a job search attend in-person meetings of the trade organizations, make a presentation at the local chamber of commerce, land interviews with their industry newsletter and join in a volunteer initiative related to their special expertise.

Social media provides additional tools. It's also for many a must-be-there. But it can rarely function as a stand-alone.

June 28, 2015

"Fugitive prisoner David Sweat is in police custody after getting shot during a confrontation with searchers ... [He] 'is down' and medical workers are 'working on him,' one source says." - New York Post, June 28, 2015. Here is the article.

The manhunt is over. If David Sweat survives his wounds, he could tell us plenty how it was out there on the lam. But, we know from our favorite shows such as "Criminal Minds" not to trust what miscreants say. Part of their con game can include spinning tales to keep us from ever getting to break through their hardened shell.

What we do know for a fact is that the manhunt has been a big expense item for taxpayers.

Also, in the geographic areas in which the escapees were presumed to be traveling, there will be lingering medical and emotional problems. The Petit Family home invasion in Connecticut has made that possibility palpable to anyone who lives in a house.

In addition, working life will be more difficult for those employed in Clinton Correctional. They will be monitored in ways they probably won't be aware of. In fact, they may come to even distrust each other.

So, The Great Escape has proved to be a public nuisance for society. It was only amazing in terms of the sophistication of the breakout. Once out, the two cons proved to be inept strategists.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie, whose website you can visit here, will have a distinct edge in presenting himself throughout the nation. That is, if he declares this Tuesday that he is running to become the next president of the U.S.

No ambiguity on this one: Attention is the currency of the 21st century. Through that, it's lots easier to buy your way in to sell products, services, causes, advocacy positions, fundraising efforts and branding. And attention, once attracted, can attract more and more. The loop can be infinite.

A distinct advantage in the attention game is girth. Presence is immediately established. When Fox News head, Roger Ailes, and public relations player, Bob Dilenschneider, enter a room, they are noticed. No other props are needed. It would be to their disadvantage to participate in the fitness and healthy movement.

In addition, being fat deflects unnecessary envy. As we know, other folks' jealousy is a poison which can seep into your career. Soon enough that professional reputation or brand shows signs of the poison. Think about it: The fit, good-looking dude is the target for envy. Everyone in the room knows he's going to get the babes. And, come on, that still counts a lot in many circles.

Sure, the fat may die prematurely. But in America, where success is the unofficial religion, a long life is not calculated as a proper tradeoff for not making it big professionally. In fact, that is a palpable fear among myriad professionals, not just fat ones: A fade-out after so many decades in the limelight.

Should executive coaches recommend those without a clear edge get fat? That makes some sense, doesn't it.

"306 responses came into my help-wanted on Mediabistro.com for a ghostwriter."

That's what a recruiter for tech companies gleefully told me.

"So."

That was my response.

And my detachment, plus mastery of fundamentals of selling, got me both the compensation and the good treatment any seasoned ghostwriter should demand.

Yes, the professional-services market can be configured as a seller's one. The bottom line on that is our ability as the seller to know our professional worth. A perceived glut, what lesser players are billing - all that is essentially irrelevant. What is relevant is the fee structure and terms and conditions we hammer out with each prospect. That also applies to employers providing full-time positions.

It's never the marketplace. It's us. And the obvious willingness to walk away from a possible sale is the bottom line.

It had been a legend in public relations that then-head of Hill & Knowlton, Bob Dilenschneider, would allegedly make his pitch, pause, and then do a trial close. If the prospect didn't respond appropriately, Dilenschneider reportedly packed up his materials and himself and headed out the door. Usually, that prompted the propsects' moving toward closing the sale.

In real estate, there has always been a glut of agents. I chose my agent in West Hartford, Connecticut because she presented herself as relatively detached. Of course, though, she indicated strategies for a quick sale at the price I wanted. It was her sense of a professional self that convinced me that I could trust her to implement the plan she presented to me. She knew her worth. She was not too hungry.

Anyone in professional services who decries supposed glut conditions in the current marketplace lacks one or both of two things:

An understanding of his or her worth

Selling skills.

If the latter, it would be a shrewd investment to enroll in a formal sales-training program. In 2002, when corporate executives were going low profile and budgets were slashed post-9/11, I recognized I had to get a new kind of pitching edge. I developed that in a Dale Carnegie eight-week seminar.

For me, the key takeaway was the competitive advantage of being able to appropriately value my unique expertise. Being "off your game" means losing that.

In the end, Roger Ailes delivered a resounding smackdown, heard around the world. For instance, one of his new bosses, James Murdoch, praised him from the Cannes conference.

As usual, Roger The Ever Resilient got what he wanted. That was to continue to report to Murdoch patriarch Rupert, along with the other dotted lines to the two sons.

Given the latest play-out of Roger's ability to land on his feet, it's useful to re-read or read for the first time the book "The Loudest Voice In The Room." By long-time Roger critic, Gabriel Sherman, it captures a man, with a childhood emotional wound and a severe medical condition, whose fierce ambition to control things puts him in unique control situations. Those who stand in the way usually regret it. No, don't mess with Roger.

Although critical, Sherman makes Roger come across as an endlessly interesting guy. Of course, he's a type: Ruthlessly competitive. But there are so many unique bits and pieces to his personality. The book "The Loudest Voice In The Room" makes us want to have a job or contract assignment at Fox News so that we could observe him for ourselves. We long to connect the dots in our own ways.

June 27, 2015

The conservatives can huff and puff but they won't blow the happy house down of same-sex couples who now can marry legally in every state. That's what the U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday.

Unlike so many other social issues, the shift in attitude and in the legal point of view has been rapid. And, now even buttoned-down financial institution Wells Fargo has an ad targeted at lesbian couples.

How did this happen? The Wall Street Journal cites one major factor: Those of alternate sexual orientations "came out." That's a powerful lesson for all those in the business of advocacy. The key takeaway for public relations representatives and lobbyists is to create the platform for the specific category of victim to self-identify. In addition, we who perceive ourselves as having unequal status in America can figure out our own ways of "coming out."

The result: One can anticipate the new research funding which would flow into mental health and substance abuse. That could happen if those who have struggled with those medical problems "came out." And, yes, they are medical conditions, not moral or social failings.

The same "coming out" could apply to the grim state of the aging in America. It doesn't even matter if we continue to bring in decent income from working at jobs or running our businesses. Most of time we are treated as The Invisibles.

Mirroring the dominant strategy of those whose sexual orientation is alternate, we over-50 can "come out" as the human beings and professionals we are.

At social events, we can buttonhole those avoiding eye contact with us and make our presence palpable.

When working, we can apply for promotions. And raises. We can request to be invited to meetings. We can contribute ideas. We can do the extreme face time, just like Millennials.

Will the day come when there are no oppressed groups or individuals in America? It could be. Just come out and see what can happen.